Brigham and Women's Hospital Nurses to Testify at January 20 DPH Hearing Opposing Closure of Burn Unit, Warn of Serious Risks to Patient Safety and Capacity

MNA nurses emphasize that burn care excellence at BWH is a critical skill that has helped in mass casualty events like the Boston Marathon Bombing

BOSTON, Jan. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Nurses at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), are urging the Department of Public Health (DPH) to deem the Brigham's 10-bed inpatient burn unit an essential service and reject Mass General Brigham's proposal to close the beds, cautioning that the decision would endanger patients, reduce emergency preparedness, and permanently dismantle irreplaceable clinical expertise.

MNA President Katie Murphy will also speak to the need for legislation to strengthen Massachusetts essential healthcare services closure law. The MNA has substantial legislative support for three bills that would improve the Commonwealth's ability to protect access to healthcare services, keep hospital services open if the DPH deems them necessary, and examine patient access to essential services.

DPH Public Hearing
Date: Tuesday, January 20, 2026
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Remote, call-in hearing.
Dial-In: 888-324-8016 
Participant Code: 9435793

Nurses who provide burn care at BWH are testifying to oppose the plan and to urge DPH officials to intervene. Burn care is among the most complex forms of critical care, requiring years of specialized nursing experience in advanced wound management, infection prevention, pain control, and long-term recovery. BWH nurses say this expertise cannot be safely relocated or rebuilt once lost.

"We will urge DPH to designate the Brigham burn beds an essential service to ensure patients have the life-saving care they need," said Kelly Morgan, a labor and delivery nurse and Chair of the BWH MNA. "Burn care depends on highly trained nurses with deep, hands-on experience. Once that expertise is dismantled, it is gone. Officials must understand that this is not an administrative change in bed designation, this would be a permanent loss of lifesaving capacity."

Nurses have cited a recent incident in which a severely burned patient near BWH was reportedly not transported to the hospital because no burn physician was available, while MGH was already at capacity. The patient waited approximately five hours for admission, worsening their condition. Nurses say the incident exposes a dangerous reality: Massachusetts does not have sufficient burn capacity to absorb the loss of the Brigham burn unit.

BWH also serves as a New England regional referral center, accepting burn patients from across multiple states. Its role in emergency preparedness was underscored after the Boston Marathon bombing, when BWH treated burn victims as part of the regional response. Nurses warn that eliminating the unit would leave the Commonwealth dangerously unprepared for future mass-casualty events.

"We are already stretched thin as a state when it comes to specialized burn care," said Jim McCarthy, a PACU nurse and Vice Chair of the BWH MNA. "Closing the Brigham burn unit reduces capacity at a time when demand still exists. This is not about efficiency, it is about whether patients get timely, expert care when minutes matter."

Nurses also raised concerns about the justification for consolidation, noting that the MGH burn unit functions as a combined ICU and step-down service and often relies on traveler nurses and SICU float nurses to care for critically ill burn patients. By contrast, BWH's burn nurses are permanent staff with decades of specialized experience dedicated exclusively to burn care.

"This proposal would sacrifice a proven center of excellence for a system-level consolidation that does not improve care," Morgan added. "We are asking DPH to protect patient safety, preserve access, and stop a decision that would weaken burn care across the entire region."

MNA Essential Services Legislation

An Act Relative to the Closing of Hospital Essential Services (H. 2469/S. 1503) *Reported favorably by the Committee on Public Health and referred to the Committee on Health Care Financing
Sponsors: Sen. Julian Cyr/Rep. Michael Kushmerek & Rep. Christine Barber

• This bill would extend the official notice period to the Department of Public Health (DPH) in advance of a closure or discontinuation of health services and require any hospital proposing closure or discontinuation of health services to provide evidence of having notified and provided the opportunity for comment from affected municipalities before the notification period begins.
• It would also instruct the Attorney General to seek an injunction to maintain the essential services for the duration of the notice period and require the Attorney General to sign on any closure or discontinuation of services deemed "essential" by the DPH.
• Additionally, the bill would prohibit the hospital from eligibility for an application for licensure or expansion for a period of three years from the date the service is discontinued, or until the essential health service is restored, or until such time as DPH is satisfied with a modified plan.
• There is added language that would prohibit the closure of an essential health service during a public health emergency.

An Act Preserving Access to Hospital Services (H. 2534/S. 1574)
Sponsors: Sen. Paul Mark/Rep. Margaret Scarsdale

• There is currently no mechanism to keep a hospital open even if the Department of Public Health (DPH) deems it necessary to the community.
• This bill would require the Department of Public Health to establish a process for state receivership of a hospital or free-standing clinic that is pending closure.

An Act Assessing Health Care Access (H. 2507/S.1610) *Reported favorably by the Committee on Public Health and referred to the Committee on Health Care Financing
Sponsors: Senator Jake Oliveira and Representative Ted Philips

• The bill would task the Department of Public Health with analyzing existing healthcare capacity, measuring future needs, and assessing the cumulative impact of more than 40 hospital and unit closures since 2009, as well as closures further back to the 1990s.
• It would additionally evaluate the effects of ongoing staffing shortages and reductions in services such as maternity care and behavioral health treatment.

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Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 26,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association